MINUTES 05-16-2011
New Hanover Soil & Water Conservation District (NHSWCD) Board Meeting held at Wilmington, NC.
Meeting Number 17 Date: _May 16, 2011
Supervisors Present: Others Present:
Nancy Pritchett Dru Harrison, Interim Director
Steve Skavroneck Amy Long, Education Coordinator
Donna Moffitt, Secretary/Treasurer Tom Bilisoly, NHSWCD Intern
Dave Thomas, Chair Matt Moy, NHSWCD Intern
Bill Hart, Vice-Chair Kristina Fischer, Area 6 Coordinator NCSWCD
Jane Wood, District Conservationist NRCS
Was this meeting held during a meal: No _
Mr. Thomas called the meeting to order at 2:50pm.
Ms. Moffitt moved to approve agenda as presented. Agenda approved by consensus.
Mr. Hart and Ms. Moffitt submitted corrections to the April 14, 2011 budget meeting minutes ahead of
time. Mr. Skavroneck moved to accept the minutes as amended. Ms. Pritchett seconded the motion;
motion passed unanimously.
Mr. Hart and Ms. Moffitt submitted corrections to the April 18, 2011 regular Board Meeting minutes
ahead of time. Mr. Skavroneck moved to accept the minutes as amended. Mr. Thomas seconded the
motion; motion passed unanimously.
Financial report:
A. Monthly reconciliation: Ms. Harrison reported that there was nothing out of the ordinary. The Area
Association dues checked finally cleared. Mr. Thomas moved to accept the report as presented.
Ms. Moffitt seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously.
B. Commissioners’ Meetingmeeting: Ms. Harrison, Mr. Hart, Mr. Skavroneck and both interns
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attended the May 16 County Commissioners’ Meeting. Ms. Harrison reported that there are no
further proposed budget cuts that affect NHSWCD at this time. Bruce Shell reiterated the
importance of NHSWCD going to the meetings and sending emails. The final budget for public
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comment will be made available by May 25; Ms. Harrison will send it to Board and staff once it is
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posted on the County web site. The next agenda review for County Commissioners is June 2 at
4pm. Ms. Harrison will attend and report back any pertinent information. Public hearing on the
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budget is June 6 at 6pm. Please plan to attend as many of these as possible.
Supervisor & Staff report:
A. Summer interns: Tom and Matt are here for the summer.
B. Staff performance evaluations: Mr. Skavroneck explained the documents in folder. He first wants to
review the current evaluation form and revise as suggested by Board and staff, then conduct
evaluations, and lastly revise position descriptions. He is willing to shepherd this through and do
the evaluations, but he needs help from one other Supervisor. He asked everyone to send
feedback on the evaluation form within the week (by May 22). He will schedule reviews. Staff will
see evaluation form prior to evaluations and will do self-evaluations. Ms. Fischer commented that
the form was good as presented, but could be tweaked as Supervisors saw fit. Ms. Moffitt added
that the rankings on the form need to match the personnel policy manual.
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C. Web and Facebook: Ms. Long reported on progress. A Facebook (FB) page now exists for the
organization. She will send out the information so that everyone Board members and staff can “like
it”. Someone (Ms. Moffitt?) Mr. Skavroneck suggested running can run a contest to give away a
rain barrel or compost bin to attract people to the site. Ms. Harrison will talk to Rain Water Solutions
to see if they will donate a barrel for the cause.
Personnel Issues:
Ms. Moffitt moved at 3:15 to go into executive session to discuss personnel issues. Mr. Skavroneck
seconded the motion; motion passed unanimously. Staff, interns and others present left the meeting.
Board consensus was to go back into regular session at 3:40. Staff, interns and others returned. Ms.
Moffitt reported in the executive session that the Board decided to advertise for the director position.
Ms. Harrison, the Interim Director, was directed to use the same application form and application
process as was used in the last director search. She is to advertise it on the same places as before,
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including the Soil & Water list serve. Posting dates will be from July 5 to July 20. Applications are to
be emailed or mailed directly to Mr. Skavroneck. Supervisors will handle the screening and selection
of applicants. The plan is to interview in first 10 days of August. Ms. Harrison clarified that there was
no application form for the last Director search, so she will use the one developed for the last
Education Coordinator search. She has already sent the job description(s) to Mr. Skavroneck. Mr.
Skavroneck realized that this changes his timeline for editing the position descriptions. Ms. Harrison
will send the job descriptions to the Board and everyone must get comments back to Mr. Skavroneck
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by May 23. Ms. Fischer reminded the Board to follow the approved processes and time line in the
personnel manual of approved processes.
Project Updates:
A. Eagles Island (EI):
Ms. Harrison reported that the list of questions in the meeting folder was from Ms. Meares and the
Public Land Trust. These questions pertain to the Skeets Winner property. This property does not
fall into City of Wilmington jurisdiction. Ms. Moffitt pointed out that land use planning practices
often allows for extra territorial jurisdiction of 1, 2, or 3 miles, so it might fall within that. She asked
Ms. Harrison to talk to someone in planning to find out. Ms. Harrison will talk to County and City
planning.
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Mr. Thomas reported that the Winner property will go into foreclosure on June 9. He was advised
by attorney Michael Murchison to put off any further discussions of the property until foreclosure
occurs. Mr. Thomas also reported that the Trust for Public Land partnership (discussed in meeting
passed) was not an option. They are a for-profit organization with high fees.
Natural Heritage trust fund dedication: The Town of Leland government has not responded on
their stance regarding this dedication. Ms. Harrison can draft a letter for Mr. Thomas to start the
conversation with Leland Town Manager, Bill Farris. Mr. Hart, Mr. Thomas and Ms. Meares will
talk to Bill and get Leland to sign off on the declaration. Ms. Harrison will contact Ms. Meares to
inform her about the Boards decision.
Ms. Fischer reminded the Board that the Division owns the Creech parcel and the District is the
manager. A formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) needs to be drawn up to understand
responsibilities of each entity. She will draft the MOU to formalize the relationship regarding EI
Creech tract and will email or present it at a future regular board meeting
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Mr. Hart informed the Board that the next EI Coalition meeting is June 15 at 2pm at the
battleship. It is an important meeting - general election of officers.
B. Community Conservation Assistance Program (CCAP):
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Ms. Harrison reported that spot checks of completed projects need to be done by June 30. One
supervisor needs to go with her. Ms. Moffitt, Mr. Skavroneck and Ms. Pritchett all volunteered.
Need to do one Agricultural site and four CCAP sites. They will schedule.
Contract review. Ms. Harrison reported that she received two requests for payment. They are both
from the Bradley Creek project with Coastal Federation. The first payment is for $11,000 for
supplemental work for BMP #2. The second payment is for $18,000 for the adjusted total of BMP
#4. Supervisors have already allocated and approved these two contracts. Mr. Skavroneck moved
for approval for the request for payments. Ms. Pritchett seconded the motion; motion passed
unanimously.
Partner Reports:
A. Division report: Ms. Fischer reported….highlighted important points in her monthly report that sent
to Supervisors previously:
Budget. Ms. Fischer reported that the budget numbers have all changed since she sent the report
out. There is now an approved House budget with drastic reductions for Soil & Water. Senate bill
229 did pass and has moved on to the House. She warned that nothing is final at this point and
many changes may still occur.
She warned ofincluded a possible records request to NHSWCD involving poultry farms that her
office has received.
State Envirothon was in April.
Deadlines for non-point source programs are coming up.
The District’s Strategy Plan is due June 1. Ms. Harrison will send a draft to Supervisors
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as soon as possible. Changes can be made after June 1, but majority of changes
should be made and submitted by June 1.
Request for 2009 payments need to be completed.
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Spot checks need to be completed.
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NCASWCD Community Conservation Standing Committee. NHSWCD created a resolution
several years ago to publicly recognize Coastal Federation and Jim Stevenson and recommended
the creation of a recognition award. A subcommittee award (Ms. Fischer, Dave Thomas, Shelly
Baird and Dick Fowler) was developed to work on that. The subcommittee is recommending
providing the award to external candidates andexternally, not within the District(s). They are
putting together an application to notice the highlights of a project/business. Jim Stevenson could
be the first recipient (posthumously) for his outstanding accomplishments for community
conservation. Ms. Fischer will send notes along to the New Hanover Supervisors for feedback.
The draft will then be shared at the summer meeting.
Mr. Hart reported on a side-note that Craig Ferguson has asked him to continue serving on the
CCAP committee. He agreed to do so.
B. NRCS report: Ms. Wood distributed her report. She reported that as usual, there is not a lot of
agricultural work in New Hanover County, h. However, there are two active contracts in New
Hanover. She also reported that NRCS has not been affected by budget cuts yet, but their fiscal
calendar starts October 1 and they are anticipating some cuts and losses, but no real information
has been passed along yet. A cComplete overhaul is in the works on how they do business – will
learn more in June. Cost-share funding might be cut.
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Old Business:
A. Nnon-profit status: Ms. Harrison reported that she attended a non-profit workshop at UNCW that
Mr. Hart recommended. She still believes that if the District becomes a non-profit, they it will need a
full-time person to run those aspects of the organization. Contracting someone out to act in this role
is possible.
Ms. Moffitt talked to Dick Fowler (Executive Director of the NC Association of Soil & Water
Conservation Districts) regarding Craig Ferguson’s mission of Districts gaining non-profit status to
becominge less dependent on government sources for funding, one avenue being non-profit status.
According to Mr. Fowler, the Association does not have this non-profit status on their radar. Craig
mentioned it, but no action has been taken. Forsythe District (Mike Bowman) might have non-profit
status. Wake District has a friends group that Robin Hammond with Clean Water Association
Management Trust Fund helped set up (she is thought to be a Wakea SWCD Associate
Supervisor). Ms. Moffitt suggested that it might be better to wait and see if more Districts did it and
use them as a model of how to do it, since it seemed to be of only mid-range importance to the
NHSWCD given current funding projections and time commitment needed to create a non-profit.
B. Communications with state legislators re: CCAP – discussed already
New Business:
A. Supervisor chair: Mr. Thomas reported to the Supervisors that it was time for them to start thinking
of replacing him as Chair. He has served as Chair for 6 to 7 years and he given his current health
concerns coupled with the talent on the Board, he feels it is time to step down. He is asking the
Board to think about it and make a change in the near future.
Upcoming Events:
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A. Greenfield Lake Day: May 21, from 10am to 2pm. NHSWCD will have a booth there with staff and
interns.
Adjourn
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June 16 at 2:30pm
Next meeting: public hearing on the budget as well as regular board meeting.
Mr. Thomas moved to adjourn the meeting. Ms. Pritchett seconded the motion; motion passed
unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 4:50pm.
Recorded By: ___________Amy Long_________________________________________________
Approved By: ___________Bill Hart_________________________________________________
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See tick List on next page for action needed by Supervisors and Staff.
May 16, 2011 SWCD Tick List
Send final draft of budget to supervisors. Dru
Let supervisors know if there are any issues relating to funding for NHSWCD in the county budget that
need to be responded to as the budget approval process moves forward. Dru
Review and comment on evaluation form and send comments to Steve by May 23. All staff and
supervisors.
Prepare draft revised evaluation form or new form based on comments by May 29. Steve
Go to SWCD Facebook page and click on Like button. All
Advertise for permanent executive direction starting July 5. Dru
Review and comment on ED position description and send to Steve by May 23. All supervisors and
staff.
Prepare draft revision of ED position description based on comments. Steve
Communicate with Marilyn Meares re heritage designation. Dru
Contact supervisors for spot check scheduling. Dru
Send draft CCAP strategy plan to supervisors for comment in time for June 1 submittal. Dru
Contact Wake SWCD to obtain their documentation relating to creating a Friends group. Dru
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